Teen found competent to stand trial for murder of Bridgeport boy

Tajay Chambers is charged with the murder of 12-year-old Clinton Howell, who was shot and killed in front of his Bridgeport home on December 18th, 2019.

Tajay Chambers is charged with the murder of 12-year-old Clinton Howell, who was shot and killed in front of his Bridgeport home on December 18th, 2019.

Photo: Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

Photo: Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Tajay Chambers is charged with the murder of 12-year-old Clinton Howell, who was shot and killed in front of his Bridgeport home on December 18th, 2019.

Tajay Chambers is charged with the murder of 12-year-old Clinton Howell, who was shot and killed in front of his Bridgeport home on December 18th, 2019.

Photo: Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

Teen found competent to stand trial for murder of Bridgeport boy

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BRIDGEPORT — A city teenager was found mentally competent Thursday to stand trial for the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy last year.

Tajay Chambers, 18, stood shaking his head as Superior Court Judge Joan Alexander found him competent after reviewing a report by a psychologist and psychiatrist.

“He is able to understand the proceedings against him and assist in his own defense,” the judge said.

She then continued the case to Nov. 21.

Chambers’ lawyer, Michael Riley, declined comment.

Chambers is accused of killing 12-year-old Clinton Howell in a drive-by shooting on Dec. 18.

Chambers is charged with murder with special circumstances, murder, use of a firearm during the commission of a felony, illegal carrying or possession of a pistol or revolver without a permit, three counts of risk of injury to a child, first-degree reckless endangerment and second-degree larceny. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bond.

If convicted of murder with special circumstances Chambers could be sentenced to life without the possibility of release.

Alexander Bolanos Jr., 17, who police said was the driver of the car is being treated as a juvenile under a new state law and his case is sealed.

Shortly after 9 p.m. on Dec. 18, Howell was standing outside his Willow Street home with an older cousin when he was shot in the chest. Police said Chambers had been aiming for the cousin who had shot at their stolen car with a BB gun.

An undocumented immigrant from Jamaica, Chambers joined his family in Bridgeport two years ago.

Enrolling in September at Central High School, he quickly formed his own gang with 16-year-old Alexander Bolanos Jr. and a 14-year-old and a 12-year-old whose names are not being released, police said.

On Oct. 8, 2018, they attacked a 16-year-old boy in a stairwell of the high school, police said. Police said as the victim protested, he was not involved in “gang stuff,” Chambers and associates pummeled him and then kicked him down the stairs.

Police said they had a rivalry with a supposed gang from the city’s East Side calling themselves the BGs or Blitz Gang and were using Facebook and Snapchat to trade boasts and insults.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, Chambers told Police Detective Adam Roscoe that on Dec. 18, Bolanos and the two other youths had picked him up in a Ford Escape they had previously stolen on Madison Avenue. Chambers took over the driving and they went to a location in Stratford to make a sneaker trade. While driving back Chambers received a Snapchat video on his cell phone from Howell’s cousin who Chambers told the detective is a member of the BGs.

“In the video (the cousin) showed them the Willow Street sign and they understood this to be a dare or challenge. Chambers stated that after receiving the video he said, ‘They just hit me, they are on Willow,’” the affidavit states.

With Bolanos now at the wheel, the four drove to Willow Street.

At first, they didn’t see any BG members, so they drove around the block twice, the affidavit states. On the third pass, they saw Howell’s cousin who they believed to be one of the captains of the BGs. He was coming back from the corner store with the younger Howell.

When the cousin saw them, he fired at them with a pellet gun, the affidavit states. Bolanos then drove to the end of the block and made a U-turn. One of the other youths in the car handed Chambers a loaded 9 mm handgun and Chambers told the detective he extended his hand out the rear passenger window and fired twice.

“I didn’t know that he was 12 years old,” police said Chambers told them. He said he didn’t know he shot someone until he saw it on the website Doing It Local.

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